Latest / Teachings On This Day On FerventWord / On Jul 23, 2008: Isaiah 44
Transcript
- You are listening to FerventWord, an online Bible study ministry with teachings and tools to help you grow deeper in your relationship with God. The following message was taught by Jerry Simmons in 2008. Isaiah chapter 44. Let's look at verses 1 through 5 together. Verse 1 says, Yet hear now, O Jacob my servant, and Israel whom I have chosen. Thus says the Lord who made you and formed you from the womb, who will help you. Verse 2. Here as we begin Isaiah chapter 44, we've been looking at Isaiah, the prophet, this book for quite some time now. We are in the latter half of the book, which correlates with the New Testament and God's focus on grace and mercy. But we also see Isaiah chapter 44, God's pronouncement of judgment. And just as we see in the New Testament, rebellion against God has consequences and it will take place. God will not be mocked. We should not be deceived. If we sow to the flesh, we will reap destruction. The context of chapter 44, verse 1, really starts back a few verses. Look at verse 27. He says in chapter 43, he says, God has been promising the nation of Judah that Babylon is going to come and conquer them as a result of their sin against him and rebellion against him. He has given them ample opportunity to repent. Many messengers coming to him to tell them that this judgment is coming, that they should repent and get right with God. But they have refused time and time and time again for several hundred years now. And so God says here, they continue to sin against me. Therefore, I will give Jacob, that is Israel, to the curse and Israel to reproaches. They're going to experience the judgment because they have continued to rebel against me. Babylon is going to come and conquer them. But now we see this message of hope in chapter 44, verse 1. He says, yet hear now, O Jacob, my servant. Thus says the Lord in verse 2, who made you and formed you, fear not. He says, even though this judgment is coming, even though Babylon is going to conquer, do not fear. What God is saying to the nation of Judah is that I am not done with you. Although you've sinned against me and rebelled against me, although Babylon is going to come and there's going to be a judgment that is brought upon you, I want you to know ahead of time that I'm not done with you. I'm not finished working in your midst. I'm not finished blessing you. God has promised that the people of Israel will not vanish from the earth. Now normally, when a nation is conquered by war, Babylon or those other world empires of the ancient days, that nation is no more. The Philistines are long gone. Many of the nations that surrounded Israel and Judah, they're long gone because they would be conquered. The survivors would be moved to different places around the kingdom. They would lose their identity and they would become just part of that nation that they were conquered by. But God is promising that even though Babylon is conquering Judah, God's people will not vanish. He has not finished working with his people. He promises there in verse 3 that he'll continue to pour out his spirit on their descendants. He will continue to pour out his blessing upon his people. At the end in verse 5 he says, there will still be those who identify themselves as And identify themselves by the name of the Lord. It's really encouraging because we see Israel, they've really blown it bad. They've messed up royally. They've disobeyed God and ran away from God as fast and as hard as they could for some time. And so it's at the point now that God must judge them. But even though He's there going to bring out judgment upon them, He says... I'm still not done with you though. I need to discipline you because you're my children and I love you. But I'm not done with you. This doesn't mean that I've given up on you and I'm just going to beat you down, leave you for dead and that's it. He says, no, I'm going to discipline you, but I'm going to restore. There's going to be a restoration after this discipline is brought on. And for you and I, it's encouraging because God follows the same model. Even though we may have blown it, we've messed up royally. But God is not done with us. And no matter what you've done, God is not done with you. He still desires to pour out his spirit upon you, to bless you, to minister to you and through you. So God's not done with you. He goes on now through the rest of the chapter to deal again with the subject of idolatry. And he's making the statement loud and clear, there is no other God. He alone is God. Now, we've discussed this before, but it's important to review it because idolatry was something very literal in those days as it is today. They would have their statues, they would have their images, their carved out things, and they would literally kneel before them, bow before them, and worship these carved images that had been made for them. And that still goes on today, but today in our society, we worship idols in a slightly different way. We're not as bold or honest to get down on our knees and kneel before things, but we do replace God in passion, in priority, in love, with other things, and that is idolatry. God belongs to... God belongs in the first and foremost place in our life, in our hearts. He needs to be the first priority of our lives, our primary passion of our hearts. He needs to be first and foremost. But very often, especially in this society, we get caught up in materialism. We get caught up in greed. We get caught up in all these other things that take the place of God. And we begin to worship those things instead of God. And so this is just as applicable to us because God is saying to us, hey, I am the only God. Make sure that I have the proper place, priority, and passion in your life. Let's look at verse 6 through 8. He says, Then let him declare it and set in order for me. Since I appointed the ancient people and the things that are coming and shall come, let them show these to them. Do not fear, nor be afraid. Have I not told you from that time and declared it? You are my witnesses. Is there a God besides me? Indeed, there is no other rock. I know not one. Here God again tells them not to fear. Don't fear. He says, look, the reason why you're not to fear is because I am the only God. There's no other God besides me. I'm telling you, I'm going to bless you again. I'm going to pour out my spirit upon your descendants. I'm not done with Israel. And you can believe me. You can trust me because I am God and there is no other. He describes himself as the Lord, the King of Israel, the Redeemer, and the Lord of Hosts. powerful titles that he ascribes to himself that they would know that they can have full confidence in god that he is true to his word he says there in verse 6 i am the first and i am the last i am the first and i am the last now this is very interesting we won't go into detail here but in revelation chapter 1 verse 11 jesus makes the same claim i am the first and i am the last and as Christians, as believers in Jesus Christ, one of the things that we believe about Jesus is that He is God. When we say that He is God, we don't mean that He is God the Father. We believe in the triune nature of God. That God is made up of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. And it's something that's difficult for us to comprehend and our minds cannot grasp it completely because the three are yet one God. They're three distinct persons, for lack of a better word, they're not really persons, three distinct personalities, but they're one God. Jesus Christ is God, but Jesus Christ is not the Father. The Father is God, but the Father is not Jesus, and the Father is not the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is God, but the Holy Spirit is not Jesus, and the Holy Spirit is not the Father. They are all one God. Just like the Bible says, a man shall leave his father and mother and cleave to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. It's a compound unity. They become one, although they are two. It's the same idea, same word that's used to describe the one God. It's a compound unity. There's three, and yet they are one. It's somewhat mystical and difficult for us to understand, but it is the truth. Because God can claim to be the first and the last, and Jesus can claim to be the first and the last, and they are both true. There is no one else who is first and last besides God. Only God is first and last. So he's saying, I'm the first and the last. There's no one else tied with me. I'm not, you know, tied with other gods. There's not other gods, you know, kind of in rank with me in the same race as me. In verse 8, he asks the question, Is there another God besides me? Is there a God besides me? And then he answers the question, Indeed, yes. There is no other rock, I know not one. There's no other rock. In Deuteronomy chapter 32 verse 4, Moses in his song ascribes to God this title, He is the rock, His work is perfect. You remember the parable that Jesus told, the wise man who built his house upon the, what was it? The rock. The foolish man built his house upon the sand and it didn't last, but the wise man built his house upon the rock and it withstood the storms of life. In the same way, God says there's no other rock. There's nothing else to build your house upon that will last. There's nothing else that you can build your life upon that will last. He alone is the rock. There is no other. There's no other foundation that you can build upon that will last. You cannot build upon legalism. You cannot build upon works. You can't build upon the Jehovah's Witness Foundation. You can't build upon the Mormon Foundation or the Buddhist Foundation or the Materialistic Foundation or the Savings Account Foundation. You can't build upon any other foundation and have it last. It's all building upon sand. The only foundation that is the rock is God, Jesus Christ, a personal and real relationship with Him. God says, look, there is no other God. There's no other rock. I know not one. Now, if he says he doesn't know of any, I'm going to take his word for it. There's none. If there were other gods, surely God would know about it. But God says, I don't know of any. There is no other gods besides him. Verse 9. Those who make an image, all of them are useless, and their precious things shall not profit. They are their own witnesses. They neither see nor know that they may be ashamed. Verse 10. Verse 11, Verse 12, Even so, he is hungry and his strength fails. He drinks no water and is faint. God has just made the statement, there is no other God. So therefore, in verse 9, those who make an image, all of them are useless. All of those other gods that people worship, all of those other gods that we worship, are useless things. They cannot help. They cannot save. They have no power. And God shows the absurdity of this as he's talking here. And he says, look, those who make these idols are mere men. They make these idols, they're mere men. And he goes on in verse 12 to say, he works it with the strength of his arms. Even so, he's hungry and his strength fails. And he drinks no water and he's faint. Here's the absurdity of idolatry. The person who builds the idol, who makes the idol says, I'm tired. Making gods is hard work. It's absurd. It's, wait a minute. How could this be? How could it be hard work to make a god? How could you get tired of making your god? How could it be so difficult to make your god? Listen, God formed you. He says this. He makes it very clear in chapter 44 in verse 2. In verse 21 and 24, he makes it sure we know, I formed you. God formed you. You can't form God. You can't fashion God. You can't make a God. And yet, that's what Israel was doing. And still today, often, that's what we do. And it is wearisome. When we say, When we try to serve these other gods and make these other gods and we give other things priority and passion in our life that belong to God, it's wearisome. We become miserable. And those masters are not nice masters. They are cruel masters and they will never satisfy us. And so God says, they will be ashamed. He says, let them be gathered together. Let them stand up. You guys want to rebel? You want to fight? You want to insist on worshiping these other gods? Go ahead, gather together. But you're just going to be ashamed together. You're not going to be successful at overturning the fact that there is no other God. You're not going to be successful at proving that it's justified for you to worship this God. You're just going to stand up together and And then be ashamed together that you have given these other things, the love, the passion, the priority that belongs to me. God says those who worship other gods, those who make those idols, those who worship them, they will be ashamed. They will stand before God like we all will and they'll be ashamed. It's a challenging thought. Will I be ashamed when I stand before God for the things that I had in my life that That took the priority, the passion, the place of God. Will I be ashamed for how I spent my time? Will I be ashamed because I worshipped other gods? Verse 13. He goes on to explain the foolishness of idolatry. Verse 13. The craftsman stretches out his rule. He marks out... I'm sorry, he marks one out with chalk. He fashions it with a plane. He marks it out with the compass and makes it like the figure of a man, according to the beauty of a man that it may remain in the house. He cuts down cedars for himself and takes the cypress and the oak. He secures it for himself among the trees of the forest. He plants a pine and the rain nourishes it. Verse 15, then it shall be for a man to burn. Verse 1. Verse 17, and the rest of it he makes into a god. His carved image, he falls down before it and worships it, prays to it and says, deliver me, for you are my god. So here, God again shows the absurdity of idolatry. It's absurd for us to put in our lives things that take the place of God. He says the craftsman works hard. He marks out on the wood the image that is to be carved. He cuts down cedars. He cuts down the trees so that he can form this God. But he doesn't consider. It doesn't cross his mind that, hey, some of this I'm just burning and then the rest of it I'm worshiping. Does that make sense to anybody? Some of this I'm burning. Some of it I use to cook my meat and provide for me and I use it to make myself warm and keep my house warm. Some of it just, it's burned. It's useful as fuel only and that's it. But then the rest of it I worship. So it would be like us, you know, with our gas cans at the pump, and I put some in my car, and then the rest I put in my idol so I can worship it. It's foolish. Now, equate this with finances, and it's a different story. Some of it I use to warm my house, or keep my house cool in the summer, and some of it I use to provide food on the table, and then what do I do with the rest of it? Is that financing my God? Is that paying for, is that going towards the things that I worship? Not that we can't have a good time, not that we can't spend money on things, but you know what I'm saying. Is there an improper, an imbalanced proportion of your money that goes to certain things, and it's imbalanced because it's taken the priority and taken the place of God. And foolishly, we often do that, and we hold back from God so that we can give to these other things and spend our money and fill our lives with the things that we worship. What we read here about the wood burning for warmth, cooking meat and bread, then worshiping the rest, it's ridiculous. It makes no sense. But then we transplant that into our lives and we have all of our reasons and justifications. Listen, just as ridiculous as this sounds about worshiping a block of wood, the leftovers of what you've burned for your food and for your warmth, it's just as ridiculous as not worshiping and serving the God who formed you. It's just as absurd. It makes no sense not to worship God. He's the one who formed you. He's the one who made you. He's the one who created you. He's the one who loves you so much that He sent His Son to die for you. He's the one who has an eternal, wonderful, blessed plan for you. He's the one who wants what's good for you eternally, things that you'll reap the joys of forevermore. He's the one who's done all of this for you. It makes no sense... not to live your life completely for Him and give Him the right priority and passion in your life. It makes no sense for Him not to be your God. It's ridiculous to not worship Him and serve for Him and live for Him as God. Just as ridiculous as worshiping a block of wood. God says, look, it's absurd. Look at verse 18. He says, they don't know or understand for he has shut their eyes so that they cannot see in their hearts so that they cannot understand. Verse 19, and no one considers in his heart. There is no knowledge nor understanding to say, I've burned half of it in the fire. Yes, I've also baked bread on the coals. I have roasted meat and eaten it. And shall I make the rest of it an abomination? Shall I fall down before a block of wood? Verse 20, he feeds on ashes. Here's what God says. As absurd as this sounds, to worship a block of wood, God says, here's why. Because he's deceived. When we give the priority and the passion, when we start to worship other gods besides the true and living God, when he's not first and foremost in our lives, we're deceived. We're deceived. And it's why we get caught up in those things. And it's why God has these scriptures and has us go through them so that we can be examined by the word of God. And we can be challenged to examine our hearts and ask the question, Lord, is there something there? Am I withholding from you that which is rightfully yours? Have I taken you out of your rightful place in my life? Lord, have I been deceived? Because the scripture says that our heart is deceitful and desperately wicked. Our heart is prone to wander. Our heart is prone to be yearning after and chasing after other things. And it's why we need to be established in our relationship with God that we don't wander. It's why we need the fellowship with one another that we don't wander. It's why we need to be involved in His Word so that we do not wander, so that our hearts are held in check by the truth of God, so that we don't become deceived. Now, those who choose to be deceived are deceived. Sometimes the deception is not entered into without knowing it. Sometimes a person deliberately chooses, I don't want to follow God. I don't want to believe God. I've heard it. I know it. But I want to do this. But coming out of that is not as clear as the decision going into it. Because if you choose to be deceived, guess what? You'll be deceived. And God will allow that. If you want to choose to be deceived and chase after those other things, He will allow it and you'll be deceived and there'll be no understanding and you won't be able to figure out, why am I a mess? Why am I miserable? Why is my life all upside down? Why can't I get my act together? Why can't I do things straight? What in the world is wrong with me? Because... We've become deceived because we chose not to give God the rightful place in our life. God says a deceived heart has turned him aside. He cannot deliver his soul nor say, is there a lie in my right hand? We don't even consider when we're deceived. Maybe I'm wrong. It takes a lot for us to come to that point, doesn't it? And that's why God allows the deception. He allows the deception. He allows us to continue down that path so that we can come to the point where there is no other way to look but up. And he allows for us to come to the point so that finally we can ask the question, maybe I don't have it all figured out like I thought I did. Maybe life isn't about me. Maybe life isn't about, you know, this thing that I've been chasing and this thing that I've been consumed with. Maybe that's not what will satisfy me. It takes us a long time to get to there. It takes us to the bottom of the pit to come to that point. It doesn't need to. It's unnecessary. God says, come and turn right now, but we're stubborn. And so God allows us to go through these things right now. He's allowing us to go through these scriptures so that we have the opportunity to hear, to turn, that we don't have to go that far, that we can turn now and give him the rightful place in our lives, that we can be brought out of the deception. God says, wake up. Listen, if I'm not the priority in your life, if I'm not the first and foremost, now you think, well, how do I know? How do I know if I'm being deceived? How do I know if I'm not giving God the rightful place in my life? A really good indication of this, it's not the only way, but just to throw it out there, is the way that you spend your time. How much time do you give to God? Very often we say, well, I'm just too busy to really spend time reading the Bible. Listen, if you're too busy to spend time reading the Bible, you're serving another God. I'm too busy to be faithful at church, you're serving another God. I'm too busy to be faithful to do what God's calling me to do, you're serving another God. The way that you spend your time is a good indication of where your heart is at. Not that that's all you do, I only read my Bible, that's all I do, that's how I know God's my priority. No. No. I'm just saying, if it's so out of balance that you don't have time on a daily basis to spend time with the Lord and His Word, You're worshiping other gods. God does not have the rightful place in your life. He is not the priority of your life. If God is the priority of your life, then you make time for Him. Then you make and give Him the place that He desires and the place that belongs to Him in your life and in your heart. The priority. The priority of your thoughts. The priority of your passions. The priority of your goals and objectives. The priority of your life needs to be God. And if He's not there... then you're worshiping other gods. God says, look, don't be deceived. Don't continue down that path. He's bringing us through these things. This is like the third or fourth week in a row that we've been covering the same concept of idolatry. Why do you think that is? Because it takes us that many times, many times. Very often, we don't get it the first time. We need to be challenged and challenged and challenged. And God's calling out, hey, stop living an idolatrous lifestyle. Turn your whole heart to me. Give yourself and commit yourself to me completely. Don't continue down that path of self-destruction and deception. You don't have to go that way. You don't have to be miserable. You can have abundant life by a relationship with me and living the way that I've called you to live with me as the priority. Those who trust in idols will be ashamed, but you don't have to be ashamed. Those who trust in the Lord will never be ashamed. God says, look, don't be deceived. I am God. There is no other. There's no other rock. There's no other foundation. There's no justification. It's ridiculous for us not to give God his rightful place in our life. Let's move on to verse 21. He says, remember these, O Jacob and Israel, for you are my servants. I have formed you and you are my servants. O Israel, you will not be forgotten by me. I have blotted out like a thick cloud your transgressions and like a cloud your sins. Return to me for I have redeemed you. Verse 23, Sing, O heavens, for the Lord has done it. Shout, you lower parts of the earth. Break forth into singing, you mountains. O forest and every tree in it, for the Lord has redeemed Jacob and glorified himself in Israel. Check it out. So God is saying, look, those who worship gods, other gods, false gods, will be ashamed. These guys are deceived. But then he calls out in verse 21, remember, remember, Here's his opportunity to you and I to repent, to turn from those things, to stop living an idolatrous lifestyle and be wholly his. He says, remember these. I have formed you. You are my servant. You will not be forgotten by me. God never forgets us. Even if we worship other gods and give him the lowest priority in our lives, even if we don't give him the right place in our lives, he never forgets us. Our sin does not separate us from his love. Nothing can separate us from his love. He still loves you. He still loves me. He is passionate about me and desires to do a work in my life. And he desires to do a work in your life. And so he says, remember, I haven't forgotten you. You've forgotten me. You're the one that needs to remember, he says. In verse 22, he says, look, I've blotted out your transgressions like a thick cloud. I've taken care of your sin. Jesus Christ on the cross did that for us. He took care of our sin. He's blotted it out. It's taken care of. There's only one thing that we need to do. He says at the end of verse 22, return to me for I have redeemed you. Jesus Christ has redeemed you. He paid the price for you. So return to him. Return to him. When we put other things in the place of God in our lives, we have forgotten him. God calls us to remember him. to return to him. He says, come back to me. We often hear the saying, you know, God allows U-turns. He doesn't just allow them, he commands them. Return, make a U-turn, get back on track, give me your whole heart, surrender yourself to me. Give him the rightful place in your life. He says in verse 23, he's calling all the earth to sing praises. Why? For the Lord has done it. The great news about this idolatrous thing that we can be involved in is that coming out of it is a matter of returning to God and rejoicing that He has done the work. He did it. He accomplished it. We blew it. We sinned. We pile up and had transgression upon transgression. But God says, I've covered it out. I've taken care of it. I have accomplished it. Just return to me. This is the only thing that's required for us. To return to him. To get right with him. It's our only responsibility. Get right with God. Turn to him. Verse 24. Thus says the Lord your Redeemer, and he who formed you from the womb, Verse 1. Here God says, well, first of all, he reminds them, I'm your Lord. I'm your Redeemer. I'm the one who formed you in the womb. I know who you are. I know everything about you. I knew about you before you were even born. I knew where you would be this day. I knew where your heart would be. I knew what you would be worshiping. He says, I'm the Lord. I make all things. I'm the one who spreads out the heavens. I'm the one who turns the counsel of the wise backwards, makes their knowledge foolishness. I'm the one who confirms the word of his servant. I'm the one who says these things and they come to pass. I'm the one who said to Jerusalem, you shall be inhabited. And it was... I'm the one who said that the people would inhabit the land, God's people would. I'm the one who said the rivers should dry up and they would be dry. And he says, I'm the one who says of Cyrus, this man Cyrus, I say of him, he is my shepherd and he shall perform all my pleasure. Saying to Jerusalem, you shall be built and to the temple, your foundation shall be laid. Here's God's promise. God says, look, you guys, you've been deceived. You've been worshiping false gods. You've been rebellious to me. And that is why Babylon is coming. They're going to conquer you. You're going to be enslaved for some time. But I haven't forgotten you. And my word to you is that I'm still going to pour out my spirit upon your descendants. It's not all lost. It's not all over. I have not forgotten you. He says, remember me. Remember me because the time is coming. The day will soon be here. Just as I've done all of these things and they've come to pass, I am the Lord God. I am the creator of the heavens and the earth. I'm the Lord God Almighty. I say it and it happens. And I say that Cyrus, my shepherd, this man who I will raise up, will perform all my pleasure and he will say to Jerusalem, you shall be built. Under his authority, Jerusalem is going to rebuild. And the temple is going to be reestablished. The foundation of the temple will be laid. The temple will be built again. Now at this time, the temple isn't destroyed. As Isaiah is writing these things and sharing these things with Judah, Babylon has not conquered that. This is a hundred years before it's to come to pass. But God is saying, look, I'm going to bring judgment, but I'm also going to bring restoration. And this man Cyrus, we'll talk more about him next week. It's an amazing story because this man Cyrus that God mentions here in Isaiah chapter 44 and 45 is not even born yet. This is 150 years before this event even takes place. This man Cyrus doesn't exist yet. But what does God say there in verse 24? He who formed you from the womb. God knew even before time began about this man named Cyrus. and how he would be used by God to bring God's people back into the land that had been promised to them, and how he would be used by God to rebuild Jerusalem, and how he would be used by God to allow God's people to rebuild the temple, to be reestablished in their worship of God in the covenant that God had extended to them. And all of this to say for you and I today, we've also been given a covenant. It's not like the first covenant that we had to have the temple in order to be built, in order to have that relationship with God that He desires to have with us. The covenant that we have with God is based upon what Jesus did for us upon the cross. Taking our place, receiving our punishment, our judgment, so that we can come to Him on the basis of our faith in what He has done for us. That we can return to God, not because we're good, not because we've worked hard, not because we've taken care of these problem areas in our lives, but we can come to God because of what Jesus Christ has done for us. And God's promise is, He says, look, I formed you. I know you. I know everything about you. I know where you are. I know what's wrong with your heart. I know the things you've been struggling with. I know the things you've been hiding from everybody else. I know the way that you've been rebelling against me. I know it all, but I took care of it. The Lord has done it. He accomplished it at the cross. And I am God, he says. I'm the creator of the heavens and the earth. My word happens. My word is accomplished. And I'm saying to you, return to me. You can be restored once again in that covenant, in that relationship with God. You can be restored again to a right place with God. You can be restored. Or for the first time, you can have a real and personal relationship with God. and your sins can be forgiven. God says, I'm God. There's no other God. There's no other rock to build your life upon. Why are you building your life upon those sandy shores that are sure to crumble? Why do you base your life on those things that will never satisfy you? Why are you so consumed with those things that just make you more thirsty and never quenches that thirst that you have? And Jesus stands there and says, I have what you need. If you drink the water that I give to you, you'll never thirst again. God promises, I haven't given up on you. I'm going to pour out my spirit. There's going to be rivers of water in the desert. If your life is a wilderness, if it's a desert, if it's dry and barren and it's empty, God says, there's going to be gushing forth water there. If you return to me, if you come to me, if you will live your life with me as your God in a relationship with me, it's what God desires for every one of us. The worship team is going to come up now and we're going to spend some time in worship. And I want to encourage you, as they sing this song, as they lead us in worship, you be praying. We're studying these things. We're going through these things. God continually reminds us of these things because He wants to challenge our hearts. Who is your God? Who do you worship? Who do you serve? Who is your life being lived for? Are you building your house and your life upon the rock or on sinking sand? And if you're not building your house upon the rock... But now's the time. Tonight's the night. Get right with God. What are you waiting for? To live in rebellion a little bit longer just makes you more miserable. But you don't have to be. You want the burden lifted? You want to hear His voice? You want to know God and be in right standing with Him? You want to be refreshed and renewed? Peter said, repent and be converted that times of refreshing may come from the Lord. You don't have to be burdened and overwhelmed. Be refreshed. Repent and be converted. Get right with God. Pour out your heart to Him this evening. Surrender yourself to Him. Give Him the rightful place in your life. And if you need help doing that, during this song, there's going to be people on either side and they would love to help you do that. Help you pray and allow God to do that work in your life. Let's worship the Lord together. We pray you have been blessed by this Bible teaching. The power of God to change a life is found in the daily reading of His Word. Visit ferventword.com to find more teachings and Bible study resources.